FOR SALE, WEEDS INCLUDED: Gov. John Hickenlooper has found a buyer for the rental house he’s owned for nearly 30 years in northwest Denver. Inside Real Estate News.

TOUGH LUCK, LITTLE GUY: Well-oiled political machines pass the campaign-finance reporting muster while smaller organizations tend to stumble through the process, according to an analysis of the campaigns most frequently fined by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. The Pueblo Chieftain.

I (HEART) AMERICA: It is impossible to form national priorities in a climate where one out of five Americans hates the government that manages our public interests. Former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart in The Huffington Post.

DID YOU REALLY EAT PIZZA WITH BOEHNER? U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner is holding a town hall meeting this morning in Loveland. The Fort Collins Colorodoan is covering it live; follow it by going to coloradoan.com starting at 9 a.m.

OIL AND GAS: A Garfield County official said it is up to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to investigate reports that hydrogen sulfide gas, which experts say can cause severe respiratory problems and even death, is showing up at natural-gas drilling operations in this region. Glennwood Springs Post Independent.

IN-STATE TUITION BILL: Two Democratic lawmakers in Colorado announced a bill to allow certain students, children of undocumented immigrants, to pay in-state tuition at state universities and community colleges, Fox News Latino reports. “I believe this is one of the great civil-rights causes of our time,” Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, said.

GOP chairman Dick Wadhams confirmed to The Statesman that Republicans could follow state election law and convene a committee that could replace a retired Maes by Tuesday. And the Secretary of State’s spokesman, Rich Coolidge, has confirmed that ballots could be made to reflect the change at that time.

“We can certify the ballot this Friday, but it doesn’t mean it’s locked,” Coolidge told The Statesman. If a candidate were, for instance, to drop out of a race, there would still be enough time to comply with the federal MOVE Act that stipulates when ballots must be sent to state residents serving overseas in the military.

Coolidge said that ballots must be mailed at least 45 days before the election, which would allow for them to be mailed as late as Sept. 18.

Secretary of state employees are busy today counting ballot signatures AND mopping up water.

They arrived at their offices at 1700 Broadway this morning to find that a water main break in their building had flooded a conference room, a storage room that didn’t have much important in it and some walkways.

The good news is no paperwork relating to ballot counting or election matters got wet.

(Of course, a candidate short of enough valid signatures might wish the paperwork had gotten wet. The office has until Friday to determine whether candidates who went the petition route collected enough valid signatures to make the ballot.)

Republican Senate hopeful Jane Norton turned in 16 boxes and more than 35,000 signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office today – ore than double the number in each Congressional district required to make the August primary ballot, her office said.

About one-third of the signatures were gathered by volunteers, the rest were collected by a firm paid for by the campaign, said Cinamon Watson, campaign spokeswoman.

“I will be on the ballot,” Norton said to about 20 volunteers and staff donning purple “Jane” T-shirts and carrying purple balloons. “But more importantly, this represents the grassroots base of my campaign.”

To get onto the ballot, Norton must have 1,500 signatures from registered Republicans in each of Colorado’s seven congressional districts. Rich Coolidge, spokesman for the Secretary of State, said his office hoped to have the signatures validated within a week.

It turns out the Secretary of State’s Office has received more than $1.5 million in overpayments made by companies and individuals between 1997 and 2004, but a legal glitch prevented the office from returning the money.

A bill by two Democrats, Sen. John Morse of Colorado Springs, and Rep. Christine Scanlan, of Dillon, corrects that problem and allows refunds, some as high as $2,500. Senate Bill 143, as amended, passed a Senate committee today.

Secretary of State Bernie Buescher said the names of those owed money will be available on the office Web site – http://www.sos.state.co.us – by the end of the week.

“I have made returning these funds a priority,” he said at a news conference today.

“It is frustrating that state law prevents us from simply sending these folks the checks they are entitled to, but this legislation fixes that and allows us to return the money to its rightful owners.”

Nearly all of the overpayments were processed with the secretary of state’s business division before the office used credit cards and relied on checks, Buescher said. The overpayments occurred before Buescher, a Grand Junction Democrat, was appointed to the office in December 2008.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.